The present invention relates to hangers and more particularly to one-piece all-plastic hangers for pants and the like.
There exists a wide variety of different types of hangers for pants and the like (e.g., clothing with a waistband such as skirts, slacks, shorts, underwear. etc.). Typically, such a hanger includes a suspending portion (commonly in the configuration of a hook to enable the hanger to be suspended from a closet rod or the like) and a clamp portion mounted on the suspended portion and defining at least one clamp for releasably fixing the pants to the hanger. A satisfactory pants hanger must be capable of engaging and reliably supporting the weight of a pair of pants, while at the same time enabling an easy engagement and disengagement of the pants by the hanger. The pants hanger may or may not additionally include laterally extending shoulders for supporting a jacket, shirt, blouse or the like.
Some hangers provide a laterally extending arm over which the pants may be draped. However, these hangers frequently leave a visible fold mark in the pants (where the pants were folded over the arm) and, furthermore, the pants can accidentally slide off the arm. In any case, as the pants are not stretched at one end by clamp portion of the hanger and at the other end by the full weight of the pants, there is less opportunity for wrinkles and the like to "hang out."
Many of the conventional types of pants hangers are formed of metal and either wood or plastic, with the metal portion providing means for biasing the teeth of a clamp together about the pants. The incorporation of metal in these hangers, especially plastic hangers, is not desired in that extra steps are required to attach the metal pieces to the hanger and the use of metal pieces greatly increases the cost of the hanger. Further, the incorporation of metal pieces hinders recycling since the metal must be separated from the plastic portion of the hanger prior to recycling.
In all-plastic hangers, where the strong biasing provided by a metal member is not available, the clamp may utilize serrated or sharp edges to engage and support the pants, but such serrated edges can be damaging to the engaged portion of the pants during suspension and even more damaging if an attempt is made to remove the pants merely by pulling them away from the hanger without first releasing the clamp.
Other all-plastic pants hangers utilize a non-serrated clamp wherein one leg of the clamp has a large aperture and the other leg of the clamp has a detent which is biased towards and through the large aperture so that the detent disrupts the normal line of the garment and forces a portion thereof through the aperture, whereby the base of the aperture in effect supports the pants. While such a hanger does far less damage than a hanger with a serrated or sharply edged clamp, it can still lead to permanent stretching and disfigurement of the material of the pants and thus a distortion in the normal drape thereof.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages, some all-plastic hangers have forsaken entirely the concept of a clamp having two members biased together to suspend the pants and rely instead upon a ratcheted or locking clamp. In the ratcheted or locking clamp, the two legs which support the pants are either unbiased or biased apart, rather than being biased towards each other. Once the user has disposed the pants between the legs of the clamp, he forces the two legs together and deploys a ratchet or other locking mechanism to maintain them in the desired clamping position. These clamps can be difficult to employ, especially where only one hand is available for suspending the pants while at the same time forcing the legs together and applying the ratchet or locking mechanism. Furthermore, wear of the ratchet with frequent use over time can result in a failure of the reliability of the clamp.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hanger for pants and the like which is all plastic.
Another object is to provide such a hanger which does not employ metal parts, serrations, sharp edges or a distortion of a portion of the pants through an aperture in order to clamp the pants.
A further object is to provide such hanger which permits easy and reliable engagement and disengagement of the pants and does not require the deployment of a ratchet or a locking mechanism.